Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) — The world may never know how many thousands of women have been injured, or even killed, by the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug. The best worldwide guess is that 13 women have been killed as a result of the mifepristone abortion pill, but the maker of the drug in Europe is saying 29 women have died.

If the information given to the Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) by European abortion drug maker Exelgyn is correct, then twice as many women have died from the abortion drug globally than the pro-life community has thought.

Currently, eight women have died from using the RU 486 abortion drug in the United States, two in England, and one each in Canada, Sweden and France.

But, according to a report by the Italian news agency ASCA, Exelgyn provided the figure of 29 women dying from the abortion pill to the Italy Ministry of Health, which, in turn, gave the information to the AIFA drug regulatory agency.

Meanwhile, Eugenia Roccella, the subsecretary of the Italian health office, also reportedly confirmed the figure she received from Exelgyn to L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

AIFA is the agency that announced this week that the abortion drug, marketed in Italy as Mifegyne, will now be available for purchase across Italy, after years of the European nation only allowing surgical abortions.

Dr. Randy O’Bannon, the director of research for the National Right to Life Committee and one of the American authorities on the abortion drug, told LifeNews.com that he can’t confirm the Exelgyn figure of 29 deaths.

“It has always been difficult to get complete information on the deaths and injuries associated with the RU-486 method,” he said Friday.

Typically, a death from the mifepristone abortion pill doesn’t become public information “unless someone knows that a woman has had a chemical abortion and recognizes that her complications are related to that event” or “unless someone reports that to the distributor or manufacturer.”

Abortion deaths may also become known if someone submits a report to a governmental agency or “someone goes to the press or the press uncovers and publicizes those incidents,” O’Bannon says.

If none of those actions occur, “then no one knows and the industry goes on promoting the myth of these drugs’ safety and more women’s lives are put at risk.”

“We can only wonder how high the number would be if we had all the information,” O’Bannon said.